Why is 9th ave called Broadway?

October 20, 2007 7:30 PM

In Vancouver, BC, the avenues are numbered sequentially, except the street that should be 9th Ave is called Broadway. I thought nothing of this until noticing that the same is true in Eugene, OR. Is that a bizarre coincidence or is there more to it? I thought maybe it was the same in NYC but it doesn't look like it. What gives?
posted by PercussivePaul to grab bag (13 comments total)

Vancouver's Broadway was originally called 9th Avenue, until some Main St merchants rallied for a name change, saying it sounded more cosmopolitan. Perhaps Eugene merchants felt the same way. Given all the streets in all the cities in all the world, it's not that unusual for two cities to have 9th Avenues known as Broadway.
posted by acoutu at 7:38 PM on October 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

In Portland, OR, Broadway is where 7th Ave would be expected. I don't think it means anything.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 7:48 PM on October 20, 2007

I'll note that Broadway in Seattle is in the right place to be 9th Ave, too. I don't know the significance, but an interesting pattern.
posted by Riki tiki at 7:51 PM on October 20, 2007

...although I forgot to mention that there is a 9th Ave in Seattle, there's just a gap between it and 10th, and Broadway is the last parallel street in that gap.
posted by Riki tiki at 7:54 PM on October 20, 2007

100th Street in LA is called Century.
posted by Mr_Crazyhorse at 8:27 PM on October 20, 2007

In Albuquerque, Broadway is right across the train tracks from 1st, which I suppose would make it technically 0th Street.
posted by wanderingmind at 8:36 PM on October 20, 2007

...Is it the broadest street?
posted by thebrokenmuse at 8:37 PM on October 20, 2007

Broad Street (kinda like broadway.... but not) is where 14th should be in Philly.
posted by nursegracer at 9:00 PM on October 20, 2007

Historically... possibly, thebrokenmuse.

Wikipedia reports "The name of the route was changed to Broadway in 1911, at the behest of merchants around Main Street (at that time the hub of Vancouver commerce), who felt that it bestowed a more cosmopolitan air. Commercial establishments originally spread out around the intersections of Cambie and Main Streets, while the character of the rest of the route remained predominantly single-family dwellings.">
posted by porpoise at 9:16 PM on October 20, 2007

I was initially intrigued because Vancouver and Eugene were my only two data points. The large variation in answers here suggests it's just a coincidence. Oh well.
posted by PercussivePaul at 9:28 PM on October 20, 2007

Broadway crosses much of the island Manhattan at a diagonal, so it's between different avenues all the way through the city. But, for what it's worth, it runs between 8th and 9th Avenues from Lincoln Center to Columbus Circle.
posted by annabellee at 9:18 AM on October 21, 2007

According to "Street Names of Vancouver" by Elizabeth Walker, the name was changed in 1909 with by-law 676 but for pretty much the same reasons as stated in Wikipedia. It was a real estate boom and "the name was changed in anticipation of the area becoming the centre of a great metropolis a la Broadway, New York.

Not sure where the Wikipedia date comes from, but the information in the book comes from the City of Vancouver Archives.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 10:33 AM on October 21, 2007

In NYC, there are at least three Broadways and an East Broadway in the five boroughs alone. The distinguishing characteristic of Broadway is a lack of adherence to the grid. Broadway in Manhattan, for instance, runs from the Northwest corner to the Southeast corner, while most other streets and avenues run North-South or East-West. I've found that slanty-ness to be the case for some Broadways in other cities, but it would definitely make sense for a city to want a Broadway for the other connotations of the word.

To check it out, you can always go to Google Maps and start typing in "broadway, city, state" to whether other Broadways are slanted or not.
posted by lampoil at 7:01 AM on October 22, 2007